Justice Ministry suspends registration of seven parties

The party, established by associates of Opposition activist Alexei Navalny, is in the Ministry's "black list"

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Reports on Monday said the Justice Ministry had suspended the state registration of People's Alliance, a party, established by associates of Opposition activist Alexei Navalny. There are six more parties on the Ministry's "black list." Experts believe the Ministry suspended their registration because of the authorities' apprehensions that some of the new parties might win regional elections.

The federal law on political parties says that registration of a political party may be suspended if errors are found in the submitted documents, the Moskovsky Komsomolets notes. These errors might include the contradiction of the Party's Charter to the country's Fundamental Law, or Constitution, an incomplete list of the submitted documents or a fact of the submitted information's not conforming to the requirements of law. The reason behind the Ministries' decision is not known yet, and it has given no explanation on its website. The newspaper adds that aside from People's Alliance, six more parties were "blacklisted," including Eurasia, Sovereign Russia, the Netocratic Party of Russia, New Force, People Against Corruption and Freedom and People's Power.

According to the Justice Ministry, "the registration of People's Alliance is suspended as provisions of its Charter contradict the law on political parties, while the information contained in the submitted documents does not meet its requirements," the Kommersant writes.

Also, the application for state registration and protocols of regional branches' meetings contain "inaccuracies and contradicting data."

The newspaper reminds that the founding congress of People's Alliance was held on December 15, 2012. Alexei Navalny did not join the party, saying "it does not need a member who spends all his time traveling between the Investigative Committee and the court where the Rosneft case is on trial.” Yet it is my party; it represents my interests," he said.

Member of the presidium of People's Alliance Leonid Volkov told the newspaper that the party would not be able to participate in the autumn election, including the election to Yekaterinburg's legislature in which he currently has a seat.

Political analyst Alexei Makarkin, cited by the Kommersant, noted two parties on the black list. "New Force is nationalists, they might appeal to the support of the regions neighboring the Caucasian republics, and try to fight in Moscow appealing to the anti-migrant sentiment," he explained. "Viktor Cherepkov /Freedom and People's Power/ is a very active and charismatic politician, a former Vladivostok mayor, who is still popular; a considerable part of the population regards him as a defender of people."

"Perhaps, the suspension of registration is explained by Vladivostok's mayoral election in the September." Makarkin believes that "the authorities are interested in preventing the establishment of the parties" which are unlikely to post high results in federal elections, whereas their results at the regional levels might be not bad."